Braves' O'brien Is Johnny On The Spot

October 14, 1995|By Andrew Bagnato, Tribune Staff Writer.

ATLANTA — When the kids back in Tulsa would choose up sides for a sandlot game, Charlie O'Brien always pretended to be Johnny Bench.

On Friday night, O'Brien didn't need to make believe. With his fellow Sooner and boyhood idol looking on from a broadcast booth, O'Brien ripped a three-run homer to power Atlanta to a 5-2 victory over Cincinnati in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series. The Braves lead the series 3-0 and are one victory away from their third World Series in five Octobers, with the next two games scheduled for Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

"It's something you dream about as a little kid, playing Johnny Bench in the backyard," said the 34-year-old O'Brien, an eight-year veteran playing in his first postseason. "That's what I grew up doing, and now I've got a chance to do it myself. I'm glad he was here to see that. I joked with him before the game.

"I actually tried to catch a lot like him. I tried to hit like him, but that didn't last very long."

O'Brien's sixth-inning blast broke up a scoreless duel between Cincinnati's David Wells and Greg Maddux of Atlanta. The Braves put it away on Chipper Jones' two-run shot an inning later.

The Braves had needed extra innings to slip by in the first two games, but Friday night they provided a big cushion for Maddux, who shook off a career's worth of postseason troubles in one superb outing.

Maddux, favored to win an unprecedented fourth consecutive Cy Young Award, brought a 6.62 postseason earned-run average into the game, but he stymied the Reds for eight innings, allowing only one earned run on seven hits.

Maddux saved his best stuff for the clutch, three times stranding a Cincinnati runner on third base.

Maddux's closest brush with trouble came in the third, when, after walking Thomas Howard on four pitches, he hit Ron Gant to load the bases with two out.

That set up a confrontation with slumping Cincinnati cleanup man Reggie Sanders. Maddux jumped ahead 0-2 before Sanders battled him to a 2-2 count. Then Maddux blew a letter-high fastball past Sanders, the center-fielder's seventh strikeout in 11 at-bats this series.

"I thought he was typical Greg Maddux: ground balls, a couple of strikeouts here and there," Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said. "I thought he might throw a shutout the way he was going."

Maddux deflected praise to O'Brien, who platoons with Javier Lopez but almost always catches Maddux. "You're only as good as your catcher," Maddux said. "I feel I have the best catcher in the game right now."

With 100-game winner Cleveland in trouble over in the American League, the Braves just might have the best team in the game right now. Jones said his teammates have grown more confident with each close call this postseason.

"You just walk down the dugout and you can just see it in everybody's eyes," Jones said. "Everybody is pulling for each other and has confidence in every single guy in that uniform. Everybody is willing to do whatever it takes to get one run across. Leadoff batters are trying to get on base for the big bangers."

Jones was talking about Fred McGriff, David Justice and Ryan Klesko, but Friday night it was him and O'Brien.

Jones has shown a bit of pop from the left side, but O'Brien won't make any Top 10 lists for power-hitting catchers. He has homered once every 25 at-bats during his career and this year set a career high with nine.

But the Braves didn't sign O'Brien two years ago for his bat; they signed him for his glove and his reputation as a patient handler of young pitchers, of whom the Braves have many.

"The best defensive catcher in the National League," Cox said.

And now the best offensive catcher, sporting a .500 average, in the postseason.

"It's been a long time coming," O'Brien said. "Close your eyes and swing hard and sometimes it'll work."

Cox will send left-hander Steve Avery out for the sweep Saturday night. Avery, a hero of the 1991 postseason, has struggled this year, but O'Brien wants to see him put the Reds away.

"I was hoping we would win because I can't wait to go out in the woods and go hunting, to be honest," O'Brien said.